Photo Booth Birthday Party

The birthday girls and a little sis.

Besties

Words and Phrases

Here are some words/phrases to describe Alea and Macy's hotel sleepover party.

migraine (me)
screaming girls
FOURTEEN girls
giggles
late night
photo booth
nail polish
crowded
happy
fun
messy
busy
pizza
cookie cake
swimming
presents
movie
popcorn
sleeping bags
pillows
donuts
friends
never again

About 10:30 last night Julie (Macy's mom) and I looked at each other and said at the exact same time, "What were we thinking!?" We agreed that this would be our last mega sleepover party. We decided that we were going to have to put a cap on the number of girls Alea and Macy could invite or they could invite as many people as they wanted and we would do a 2 hour swim party or roller skating party. Overall, the girls were well behaved, but we just had too many girls in too small of a space.

I woke up yesterday morning with a migraine (I have been fighting it all week). I broke down and took Excedrin Migraine because I knew what my day/night had in store for me. I'm glad I did. It took the edge off for a while.

After all the girls were picked up Davin, Alea and I came home and took a nap. I woke up from that nap and my migraine was back. I'm not surprised though, when I woke up this morning I was dizzy for about 2 hours.

I think Alea and Macy had a great time. They both got an insane amount of gifts. I am really ready to start doing parties without gifts or parties where they bring items for an animal shelter or something. Alea doesn't need anything else to add to her room. I love that girl, but she is a hoarder!

Superheroes

We like to talk about superheroes at our house.

Here are some of the typical questions we ask each other during our superhero conversations.

Who is your favorite superhero?
If you could have ONE super power what would it be and why?
If you could date a superhero who would it be and why?
Who is your favorite villain?
Which superhero has the best girl/boyfriend?
Who has the best alter identity? (i.e., Clark Kent, Tony Stark, Bruce Wayne, etc.)

We also like to play 20 questions, superhero edition. This is a game we made up. We also like to play 20 questions, Disney edition.

These are some of our favorite car games.
Alea loves to say as we are getting in the car that we are going to have a superhero conversation the entire way home. We can get very animated and passionate about our answers.

Alea's question

Alea asked me this morning..."Mom, what is the difference between foster care and an orphanage?"

We had a discussion about foster care and orphanages and about the kind of care kids usually get in each type of place (I know there are great orphanages around the world and terrible foster parents/homes). I just can't think that anything that makes my 9 year old ask questions and think about orphans is a bad thing. 

I truly believe that our experiences as a foster family will help shape Alea into the person she is suppose to be (hopefully all in a positive way). 

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope." Jeremiah 29:11

Razorfest

This is the 9th year for Razorfest at the University of Arkansas. Although we have lived here 9 years we have never been before and I had to Google it to find out what Razorfest even was (although I hear the word all the time). Apparently it is a free event for families hosted at the University of Arkansas. There were dozens of bouncy houses (apparently Alea is either too old or too cool to do these anymore which is fine with me...way less waiting in line time). They also had TONS of free stuff. We got dog treats, dozens of different kinds of snacks, magnets, buttons, hats, shirts, balloons, pens, cups, drinks, face painting (again...too cool or too old), seeds, coupons, etc. They also had several different characters walking around that you could have your photo taken with (all free).

The event is focused on children so pretty much everything there is kid friendly. They had a lot of different Razorback athletes there signing autographs. Before Razorfest started there was a 1K walk at Fayetteville High School up the road. The 1K walk was called Champions for Kids. Any non-profit that focuses on children could register their group and anyone who wanted to walk would pay their walk registration to the non-profit of their choice to walk. It was nice because there were a lot of people walking in the same walk but everyone was supporting a specific non-profit. Davin, Alea and I walked with Haley and her crew with The C.A.L.L. We got to meet some new CALL people (new to us anyway). They were mostly all board members but some were foster parents as well.

The C.A.L.L. and DCFS (or DHS) both had booths so we got to visit with our new CALL friends and our social worker at the event (it seems strange to say we have a social worker). Most of the time our social workers (we kind of have two since one is so new) don't seem to have much in the way of personalities but this was a good event in which to see them. They were more relaxed and Chris (one of our social workers) even started teasing us. Davin and I tease each other and other people a lot so it was great to see him open up and show some spunk and personality. He is a young guy and probably pretty fresh out of school so he is just learning the ropes. That is fine with me because we are just learning too.

Alea with the Coca-Cola bear at the Champions for Kids walk.

Alea with Tony the Tiger.

Davin and Alea with SpongeBob. 

(Alea thought she was too cool to have her picture taken with SpongeBob,

 but I made Davin drag her along for the photo.)

Alea and Papa Rap. Papa Rap is a local celebrity. 

He does a lot with locals schools and hosts a bilingual radio show.

We found the Girl Scout booth.

They had a real Razorback there. This thing was huge and ugly.

Alea at the Champions for Kids walk. A 1K walk is the way to go. 

We walked one lap around the high school track. :)

Daddy/Daughter Dance

Tonight Davin and Alea attended their first father/daughter dance at Alea's school. Alea was so cute and I think they had a great time. The came home tired and sore. Alea's best friends all went with their dads. I call these dads Davin's posse. Mr. Mike (Macy's dad), Mr. Rex (Natalie's dad) and Davin all get along really well. Apparently Mr. Rex was showing off his awesome dance skills. :)

I think this is the first time Davin has ever worn pink. 

Her daddy got her a corsage and she loved it!

48 hours

That is how long my sister and brother-in-laws house was on the market before they sold it! Wow!

Pat took a job at the new hospital in Galena, KS. He starts work May 20 something. Becky has to teach until the end of May. Pat graduates on May 11th. They have to be out of their house on May 13th because they are closing on the 14th. Becky and Reed and the dog, Raider, are going to stay with an older teacher friend of Becky's. Pat is going to Pittsburg to stay with a friend of theirs up there. Heidi, the dog, is coming to stay with us (she would hunt down and kill the cat at the house my sister is going to be staying at). I think Heidi will be with us until Becky and Reed get to Pittsburg and/or Pat finds them an apartment. Heidi is a good dog but gets very depressed when her daddy isn't around. They are looking into getting her some meds so she won't be so sad while she is with us. Sparky is going to be so excited to have his cousin all to himself for a couple of weeks. May is going to be a very busy month. I guess we are getting roped into helping them load the semi-truck when we are in Texas for Pat's graduation. Good times, good times.

Not a single thing

That is how much baby stuff we saved from Alea...not a single thing.

My assistant principal is pregnant with her fourth child. When I told her about becoming foster parents she said a friend of hers had just offered her a baby bed but that she didn't need it. Her friend was willing to give it to us so I made arrangements with Korienne's friend and we went to the friends house tonight to pick up the bed.

Adrienne, the friend, told me how to get to her house and we were suppose to meet her there at 7pm. When we got to her house and neighborhood we saw some amazing homes. We rang the doorbell and her husband opened the door. This family is African American and I could tell when the husband opened the door that he was wondering why we were ringing his doorbell. He opened the door, smiled and said, "Yes, this is the house you want to buy. It would be perfect for your family. Would you like to take a tour?" He said this as he looked at the three of us. (They had a for sale sign in the yard and are trying to sell their home.) This was a huge house so saying it was perfect for us was a bit of a stretch. I told him that it was a nice house but that we were there to pick up the baby bed. He gave us a look like we were crazy and then invited us in. He kept saying, "Oh yea! Sure, sure." I finally asked, "Does Adrienne live here?" He said yes. I told him that we were friends with Korienne and that Adrienne said we could have their baby bed. He was so nice the entire time and lead us upstairs to get the baby bed. When we walked upstairs I saw the largest bonus room ever. I was amazed at all the space...then we turned the corner and it was an "L" shaped bonus room so it was twice as big as I originally thought it was. We took the baby bed downstairs and the entire time the husband (I couldn't figure out how to say his name) kept trying to sell us their house. He was such a sweet guy. On the way upstairs he said, "So...are we exxxx....ppppeeeccccttttiiinnnnggg?" I could tell he was nervous to ask that question but also thought it was a safe question because we were getting their baby bed. I told him we were getting ready to open our home for foster care. He seemed to like that answer. 

They had three kids that were following us around. Their oldest was an 8 1/2 year old girl. Their youngest was a little girl, I thought she was probably about 18 months but she could talk really well so I'm not sure how old that would make her. (Wow! I am so out of touch with little kids.) Her name was Katie. When we opened the door to take the bed out her brother and sister yelled for her to come back inside. I asked if she was a runner and they both said, "YES!". Ooops. I asked Katie if I could pick her up and hold her and she raised her arms to me. She kept asking me where we were taking the bed. When I picked her up her sister looked at me with her mouth hanging open and said, "She doesn't let ANYONE hold her!" Ok. Then Katie started telling me about her boo-boo on her hand (that I couldn't see). Then her sister said, "She doesn't talk to ANYONE!". I was very happy to hear these two things from the sister. This made me feel like I could get kids who didn't know me to trust me and want to hang out with me (this is going to be very important in a few months). 

When I got in the car Adrienne texted me that she had forgotten about meeting us to give us the baby bed. I told her we had just left her house and that she had a sweet family. She said that was good to hear because she hadn't told her husband anything about us or about us coming over to get the bed. :) I told her that he did try several times to sell us their house. :)  When we left their house we called the number on the for sale sign. The house was 5,600 square foot and they were asking $620,000 for it. Davin and I both about fell out of the truck when we heard this. WOW! It was nice house. I told Davin that I was pretty sure he would take $600,000 for it. Hahaha. :)

The entire time we were moving pieces of the bed downstairs Katie kept asking where we were taking the bed. I told her that her mommy and daddy were giving it to us so we could have a baby sleep in it at our house. I asked her if she slept in a big girl bed (she seemed pretty little to be out of a baby bed already). Her brother said no that she still slept in her baby bed. This means that the very nice baby bed we were given wasn't the baby bed they were using for Katie. I wonder if someone gave them this one or if they bought a brand new baby bed for each child. Wow. Alea's baby bed came from Target.

Back to the title of this post. We now have a baby bed for a child 0 to 2 years old. That makes one thing we have for a child. I've been looking at Target.com and BabiesRus.com. Wow! There are a lot of things you need for a baby. How could I have forgotten how much stuff babies take. My sister has some baby stuff she is going to give us when we go to Texas next month to watch Pat graduate with his doctorate. I can't wait to see what she has for us. 

Cinderella and her step family

Alea opened her Cinderlla family set today. Can you tell how amazing these dolls are? 

Can you see how much they look exactly like the characters in the cartoon movie? So cool!!

Is it just me or is Cinderella rolling her eyes at her step-mother?

What are the step-sisters looking at? I think they are plotting something. 

The step-mother is so bold, look how she is staring me down. Creepy.

(Ignore Alea's after shower look.)

Alea is processing

A week or two ago Alea saw someone holding a 8 or 9 month old baby and pointed him out to me and commented on how cute he was. I asked her if she was ready to have one of those in our house and she said yes.

This weekend Alea and I went shopping for yarn and material to give my mom so she could make us a crochet blanket and a quilt for the "guest" room (I'm not sure what to call that room anymore). While we went from store to store to find the material I had in mind Alea said, "Mom, I wish you guys would hurry up and get your training done!" I asked her if she was in a hurry to get a baby or a kid and she said yes. :) How sweet. 

Happy Birthday Alea!!

Happy 9th birthday Alea!

Nine years young!

She got a complete Cinderella doll set.

Minnie Mouse jammies.

Snow White jammies...and a lot of other clothes not shown. ;)

Alea and Macy at Red Robin. 

It is a birthday tradition for us to go to Red Robin with A and M on Alea's bday. 

Macy's birthday is 7 days after Alea's.

9

The girls with Red Robin.

A puppy toy that Alea wanted.

Love her!

Peace sign sunglasses.

Her serious "I'm too cool" look.

A NYC shirt. Where is this going?

More NYC.

A cool purse for traveling.

WHAT!? I'm going to NYC!!!! Yea!!! I love my mommy! (ok. I added that last part.)

So excited to be going with mommy and Ms. Becky to New York City!

Giving her bestie some loves.

Look what we found at Red Robin. 

Macy has issues with dairy and Ms. Becky has issues with wheat so we skipped the ice cream at dinner and went to get cupcakes for everyone at Bliss cupcakes. Becky got a gluten free cupcake. 

Macy and Alea got chocolate cupcakes. Davin got a peanut butter cup cupcake.

I had a strawberry cupcake and Becky had a blueberry gluten free cupcake.

After dinner we went to see "The Croods" which I kept calling "The Cruds". The girls that that was so funny.